Preheat oven to 450 and cover two large baking sheets with parchment paper

Lightly brush oil on both sides of each tortilla. Lay the tortillas out on the two prepared baking sheets. Place in preheated oven and bake until crisp, about 10-12 minutes, flipping half way through. Once crisp remove from the oven and sprinkle with salt.

Grease a 9x13 baking dish and and then layer half of the tortillas in the bottom of the dish. Top with half of the enchilada sauce, followed by half of the cheese, then sprinkle all of the black beans over the cheese. Repeat the layers one more time - tortillas, sauce, cheese.

Lower the oven temperature to 375 and carefully crack 6-8 eggs on top of the casserole. Bake until egg whites are fully set but yolks are still runny, 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and season the eggs with salt and pepper.

Serve with avocado and light sour cream.

Be sure to watch the eggs towards the end of the cooking time, we over cooked ours a bit and the runny yolks would have helped soften the tortilla edges which got a little too crispy. Aside from the egg problem this tasted good and was easy to make. Dave prefers his egg yolks to be cooked through and he was happy to eat 5/6 of the casserole on his own.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

This citrus salad is incredibly striking to look at due to all of the different colors at play, pick up some navel oranges for a nice orange color, cara cara oranges for more of a pink color, and blood oranges for a nice deep burgundy.

Slice the peels off of the citrus and place on the serving plate. Layer with thinly slivered fennel slices and top with the avocado slices.

In a small bowl, slowly whisk the olive oil into the apple cider vinegar until combined. Add the honey and whisk to mix. Season with kosher salt and pepper.

Pour dressing over the salad and sprinkle with the fresh parsley to add a little more color.

This had such a pretty presentation, my grocery store sells all of these citrus fruits, but if you're unable to find a specific one, feel free to sub a different type of citrus fruit according to your personal taste. The vinaigrette helped add a little something extra to cut through the acidity of the citrus fruit.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, line a baking sheet with parchment. In a food processor, add the chickpeas, onion, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, olive oil, baking soda and sesame seeds. Pulse until you have a thick paste. In a large mixing bowl, add the chickpea mixture, quinoa and parsley. Stir together until evenly combined.

Form the falafels with your hands by taking about 2 tablespoons of the mixture at a time. Gently roll in your hands to form a ball, and then place it on the baking sheet. Continue with the rest of the batter.

Bake for 30 minutes in the oven, until lightly browned and slightly crispy on the outside.

While the falafel bakes, make your sauce by combining all of the yogurt sauce ingredients in a small bowl and whisking them together until combined.

We both really liked this recipe, baking the falafel rather than frying it made the falafel balls much less dark on the outside than they usually are, but I thought that they still had good texture. I love pita bread, but turning this into a lettuce wrap instead of using pita was such a good idea and it helped the recipe to feel light.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Today is the Four Year Blog-iversary of Vegetarian & Cooking! I can't believe how far this blog has come from my tiny college kitchen. The recipes for this blog have now been created in eight different kitchens (three that were my own) and over the last four years my posts have been featured by many awesome companies and blogs. Year Four saw many changes to Vegetarian & Cooking, namely my transition from student to a full-time member of the work force. And although taking time off to study for the bar exam left me without the daily posts I had racked up over the previous three years, it was plenty worth it in the end.

I'm humbled and blessed by how well this blog has been received by my family friends and co-workers...as well as plenty of strangers who have spent time reading, commenting, and trying these recipes.

Four years ago this was my Facebook post:

February 26, 2012 at 4:43pm · Starting a cooking blog, the perfect combination of my three favorite things -- cooking, photography and writing.Look for my first post tonight!

I couldn't be more excited about the leaps and bounds this blog has grown since that moment in 2012. and as always I cannot wait to see where things grow from here.

While the cake is baking, crush the oreo cookies in a food processor (the Vitamix worked wonderfully for this) and stir in the softened neufchatel cheese until fully blended. This will be a very thick "filling". Place half of the filling on a sheet of wax paper and top with another. Use a rolling pin to roll the filling into a 1/4 inch layer. Shape and form until rounded like the cake layers. Repeat with the second half of the filling.

After cake has cooled, flip one circle of oreo filling onto the cake, add the other cake layer and once again top with an oreo round.

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt together butter and evaporated milk. Bring to a rolling boil for 1 minute and stir in chocolate chips. Remove from heat and pour over cake, finishing with a garnish of mini chocolate chips!

This cake turned out pretty cool, I think it might have looked even nicer as a bundt cake with the oreo filling as a center layer, but I didn't think about that until after the fact. I promised my mom that next year I would make some sort of a white cake for the Five Year Blog-iversary, it never occurs to me that I've made a chocolate cake for the blog-iversary over the last four years until I already have the ingredients. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this cake, the oreo filling added a nice touch.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

My boss recommended this recipe to me after trying it. She had been reading a book about Blue Zones, areas where people live considerably longer, the book interviews centenarians from all over the world and highlights their healthy habits.

Recipe from "The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People" by Dan Buettner.

Stir the tomatoes, black beans, broth, sweet potatoes, kidney beans, onion, red potatoes, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and salt in a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with bell pepper and scallions

I cheated a little and served mine with sour cream and cheddar, but overall this stew turned out really nicely. It had excellent flavor and plenty of ingredients making each bite interesting. Dave enjoyed his stew plain, but with a little bit of toasted bread to sop up some of the broth.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Happy Soup Wednesday! This is the last Soup Wednesday of 2016 and next week we'll be moving on to a different Sandwich recipe every Wednesday. I love doing Soup Wednesday during the winter, because curling up with a warm cup of soup on a blustery day is always pleasant. However, Sandwich Wednesday forces me to think outside the box for lunch, so the transition is always nice.

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium-low. Add the onions and saute about 10 minutes or until translucent. Then add the garlic, bay leaf, cumin, salt, turmeric and cardamom. Stir to combine and saute for one minute.

Add the cauliflower and vegetable broth, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for about 15 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender.

Remove the bay leaf and then remove the soup from heat and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. Transfer back to the heat and stir in the coconut milk and vinegar.

This soup was really simple, but I enjoyed how it turned out. The turmeric, coconut milk and cauliflower all went together nicely and the warm spices made this soup even more appropriate for the colder weather.

This hummus was excellent! The roasted cauliflower made the hummus incredibly light and the flavor was nice. The seasoning helped to highlight the great flavors that roasting cauliflower brings out in the vegetable which some believe to be pretty bland.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Whenever we make sushi, I try to make more than one recipe at a time, that way we can have some variety in our sushi roll. With the Spicy Eggplant Sushi from yesterday's post, I served this Buffalo Roll.

Slice the tofu into long strips and heat the olive oil in a medium skillet. Once hot, add the tofu, brown on all sides. Once the tofu has browned, add the buffalo sauce to the skillet and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until sauce has thickened and sticks to tofu strips.

Remove from heat set aside and let cool for a few minutes.

To create your sushi rolls, Take one sheet of nori and place onto your sushi rolling mat. Spread about a 1 cup of cooked rice onto ⅔ of the nori, spreading it evenly with your fingers. Make sure to leave one inch uncovered (with no rice at all) at the top. Lay the buffalo tofu slices in the center of the rice. Using the mat on the end closest to you, roll from the bottom up and over the ingredients, pressing down gently but firmly to make the fillings stay in and to help shape the roll. (I used this video from Kikoman to help me visually see the rolling process.)

This buffalo tofu roll turned out pretty good, we served it with ranch and soy sauce, it would have been better with a little bit of blue cheese dressing. This would have been good with some green onion incorporated inside of the roll as well. The Buffalo Roll was a lot simpler than the Spicy Eggplant Roll, but overall it still tasted good.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Our latest adventure in creating vegan sushi....I say vegan sushi, because as Pinterest has reminded me, a lot of vegetarians eat seafood. Whenever I search for new sushi recipes, I always need to search for vegan recipes to ensure that I'm getting a seafood-less recipe.

First prepare the sushi rice, in a small saucepan add the rice, water, salt, and rice vinegar. Heat to a simmer. Cover and allow to continue simmering for about 20 minutes, or until all liquid is absorbed.
Remove from heat and allow to sit for another 10 minutes, covered.

To make the eggplant, heat the vegetable oil in medium skillet. Add eggplant strips in a single layer. Cook until tender and browned on each side, about 5 minutes per side. Add in the Asian chili paste and garlic, saute until the eggplant slices are covered in the chili paste.

To create your sushi rolls, Take one sheet of nori and place onto your sushi rolling mat. Spread about a ½ cup of cooked rice onto ⅔ of the nori, spreading it evenly with your fingers. Make sure to leave one inch uncovered (with no rice at all) at the top. Lay in all of the eggplant slices and raw scallions in the center of the rice. Using the mat on the end closest to you, roll from the bottom up and over the ingredients, pressing down gently but firmly to make the fillings stay in and to help shape the roll. (I used this video from Kikoman to help me visually see the rolling process.)

Slice the sushi and serve with wasabi, pickled ginger, and soy sauce.

We liked this -- the fresh green onion paired nicely with the cooked eggplant to give a pop of flavor and a different texture. I used chili garlic sauce as my Asian chili paste, so ours was incredibly spicy. I always appreciate how easy it is to make sushi rolls now that I've gotten the hang of actually rolling the ingredients together, this was quick to make and had easy clean-up which is always appreciated on a week night.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

It feels weird posting this recipe today since we've had a sudden warm-up and it's currently over 60 degrees outside. This might have been more appropriate on Tuesday when we got a foot of snow, but I digress, knowing Ohio it will cool down so that you can enjoy this in chilly weather by the beginning of next week.

Add coconut milk and almond milk to a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Whisk in chocolate chips, cacao powder and vanilla; stirring until chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Start with 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder and add an additional tablespoon after tasting. Finish the hot chocolate with a pinch of salt. Taste and adjust flavor as necessary.

Top with whipped cream, marshmallows, or coconut flakes. This recipe makes two servings.

Dave conquered this hot chocolate for breakfast this morning. The finished product is pretty creamy and thick, a lot thicker than traditional hot chocolate. It's also pretty rich. Overall, Dave enjoyed how easy this was to make and would be happy to make it again.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Dave picked up a bag of meyer lemons for free at our local grocery store and then chose a recipe for them to be used in. For some reason he was really married to the idea of the meyer lemons going into some sort of sangria, so as a result this recipe was made on Valentine's Day.

Combine all of the ingredients and let sit in the fridge so that all of the flavors can mingle. Serve chilled with additional meyer lemon slices for garnish.

Dave liked this a lot better than I did, he was happy that you could taste all of the ingredients individually and thought they blended nicely together, his one complaint was that it was pretty acidic. He wished that we had added something to help sweeten it up, however, he also did finish of the pitcher.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Dave and I have a Valentine's Day tradition of staying in and making some sort of pasta, rather than going out and fighting the "romantic" crowds at area restaurants. This year we prepared this gnocchi recipe together and enjoyed it with this Apple Fennel Salad as an appetizer.

Gnocchi
To make the gnocchi. Mix the mashed sweet potato, ricotta, eggs, salt and parmesan together in a large bowl. Add 2 cups of the flour and mix well with your hands. The dough should be very sticky. Add another half cup of flour and mix in. The dough will still be sticky, but you'll be able to shape it into a ball. If you can't form the dough into a large ball, keep adding a little flour at a time until you can get a soft dough that will be rollable.

Spread some flour on a large work surface. Cut the dough ball into four equal pieces. Take one piece and cut it in half. Roll the piece of dough into a snake about 1/2 inch thick, then cut it into pieces about the width of a fork. Repeat this process with the other piece of dough and place the gnocchi on a large plate, cover and set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Sauce
In a medium skillet over high heat, melt two tablespoons of butter. Add the mushrooms to the skillet in a single layer and let them sizzle until they have caramelized on the bottom, about 2 minutes. When the bottoms are caramelized, toss them once and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Continue to cook without stirring for about 5 minutes. Season once again with salt and pepper.

Add the remaining butter and cook until it begins to brown. Once the butter is browned reduce the heat and add the garlic, thyme and rosemary and cook for about 10 seconds. Add the balsamic vinegar, and simmer until the mushrooms are glazed with the sauce.

Now boil the gnocchi in the large pot until they float. Remove them with a slotted spoon and add them right into the skillet with the mushrooms/sauce. Add the gnocchi to the skillet with the mushrooms/sauce and let them get crisp on one side for a few minutes and then for a few minutes on the other. Remove from the heat and serve topped with crumbled goat cheese.

I know this recipe seems to contain a lot of steps, but after you make the first few gnocchi you'll get the hang of it. Dave ended up liking this recipe a lot, it reminded him of a dish from one of our favorite local restaurants and he couldn't get enough gnocchi.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spread asparagus on a parchment covered baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray and season lightly with salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes, then set aside. If making croutons, reduce heat to 325 degrees at this time.

Heat a large saucepan or pot medium heat. Once hot, add 2 tablespoons of oil, shallot, and garlic. Season lightly with salt and pepper and stir to coat. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until fragrant and translucent. Add peas, vegetable broth and milk and season with salt and pepper once more.

Add the asparagus and use an immersion blender to blend the ingredients until smooth.
Then bring to medium heat and simmer. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Remove from heat and add lemon juice.

While the soup is simmering, prepare the croutons by whisking together oil and seasonings in a small bowl. Pour over the bread cubes and toss to combine. Season once more with a bit more garlic powder, salt and pepper and toss to make sure the cubes are evenly coated. Spread onto the baking sheet you used for the asparagus and bake or 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

This soup was the perfect consistency for winter, it had a nice thick and creamy texture which was nice considering how chilly it is outside (and inside, we keep the heat low). I always enjoy adding a crostini or something to my soup, so I appreciated the croutons adding a slightly different texture to the soup.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

This crisp, refreshing salad is one of the dishes Dave and I prepared for Valentine's Day. The entire recipe is supposed to be composed of raw, vegan ingredients, but since Dave and I are vegetarian we adapted the recipe to include non-vegan, but still vegetarian ingredients.

Combine the olive oil, honey, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Stack the apple and fennel, sprinkle with goat cheese and walnuts. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and serve.

If you don't want to stack the salad ingredients, this also looked pretty with the apple as the bottom layer, with the rest of the ingredients scattered over top.

I enjoyed this salad before our meal, this was nice and light, especially before a heavier pasta main course. The apple and fennel paired nicely together, both are light, but have their own distinct flavor which was able to shine through. The dressing helped to add a little bit of cohesion, but the salad might have been nice without it.

Monday, February 15, 2016

This quiche was one of the first non-soup things I ate when my cold subsided a little, and it was so worth it. After being on a beet kick for quite a few months, we've backed off incorporating them in everything we make. I forgot how wonderful beets can be and the pairing of beets, brie, and dill in this quiche is a match made in heaven.

On a large cookie sheet covered with parchment paper add the beets, onion, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Toss all of the ingredients well to combine and then roast for 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove from the oven. Once cool enough to handle, chop the onion into thin slices.

While the veggies are roasting whisk the eggs, greek yogurt, heavy cream, parsley, dill, crushed red pepper and a good pinch of salt + pepper in a bowl until combined. Stir in the brie and half of the shredded white cheddar cheese.

Press the pie crust into a greased pie pan and then pour the egg mixture over the veggies. Top with the remaining white cheddar cheese. Place the tart pan on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (in case there's any overflow) and bake on the middle rack in the oven for 60 minutes.

Let the quiche sit 5 minutes for before cutting and then serve.

We got six servings out of this quiche and it was ridiculously delicious. The earthy beets pair nicely with the brie and dill. The eggs and Greek yogurt make the filling very light and airy. Using the pre-prepared pie crust made preparation easy as well, there was a lot of down time and I was able to essentially clean up the kitchen before dinner had even finished baking.

Search

Welcome

Welcome to Vegetarian & Cooking! I am a home trained cook who has been a vegetarian for eleven years. All of the food that I post has been prepared by me and likely taste tested by my fiancé, Dave.

Please join in my adventures as I juggle life and the wonderful hobby that has become this blog. To learn more about me or Vegetarian & Cooking! please visit the tabs above, otherwise, enjoy my most recent posts.